This invention relates to containers for carrying and storing material and in particular, to a bait box having a pair of doors which are automatically lockable in certain orientations and which can be opened when disposed as the upper surface of the box.
More specifically, the invention relates to a bait box having an inner compartment and a weighted drum rotatably mounted therein. A slot is formed in a circumferential flange disposed on the drum and the slot is designed to always return to an uppermost position of the drum despite the orientation of the box. Thus, when one of the hinged doors is disposed as the upper surface of the box, the slot permits a projection mounted on the door to pass therethrough and allow opening of the door. As the box is reoriented moving the particular door to another planar orientation, it is automatically locked whereby the opposite door can be opened when it is oriented as the upper top surface of the box.
It is well-known in the past to carry fishing material and the like such as bait, equipment and the like in a rectangular shaped box having a pair of opposed doors. The opposed doors allow the user to have access to the interior of the box from opposite sides for convenient retrieval of material therein. It is commonly found that in use of such prior art bait boxes that the user overlooks locking the upper door when turning the box up side-down for access to the other door. This results because the prior art devices lock and unlock the access doors by manually operable locking mechanisms or latches. Thus, when the user fails to latch or lock the door when turning the box over, material within the container can fall from the container to the ground and the like.
Moreover, the design of many of the latches used to secure the doors of such containers can open during transporting even after being locked to cause spilling of the contents of the box. It is therefore desirable in the art to provide a container which permits easy opening of a door as it is oriented as the upper horizontal surface, but which automatically locks in all other planar orientations.